Latest news with #Storehouse
Time Out
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
First look: inside the mind-blowing new V&A East Storehouse in Stratford
From the outside, the V&A East Storehouse looks like any other Stratford warehouse. The giant glass and steel cuboid sits among the soulless, unnervingly clean apartment blocks of the east London enclave. Stratford itself is a unique area; it can be eerily quiet, and is peppered with odd landmarks like the towering ArcelorMittal Orbit and shiny Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, contrasting starkly with the graffiti-clad bars of Hackney Wick just beyond. But the V&A East Storehouse, alongside the V&A East Museum (opening in 2026) and the new Sadler's Wells East, is making this former brownfield site one of London's most exciting new cultural destinations. I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to look around this bona fide treasure trove, though wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this all-free, all-new cultural offering: would it be a warehouse full of bubble-wrapped statues and old paintings covered in sheets? In reality, I was awestruck by the hoard of goods on show, which spans centuries, continents and all kinds of creative disciplines. The Storehouse is one of many new openings from the V&A in recent years, with the Young V&A reopening after refurbishment in 2023 and the V&A East Museum also on the horizon. Plus, from September 2025, the Storehouse will also be home to the David Bowie Centre, the biggest collection of Bowie-related objects on display to date. What exactly is the V&A East Storehouse? This isn't some dusty gallery showing old objects. It is a 'working museum', meaning it doesn't have permanent displays (it doesn't really have proper displays at all, just shelves), and every one of its objects is free to be moved around by the people at work behind the scenes at any time. It's also the first of its kind, and it might just change how we think about viewing artefacts forever. Museums typically only show about one or two percent of their archives, I'm told by a guide, meaning huge quantities of objects never get to see the light of day. The V&A has decided to rewrite the script and put the majority of its collection on view for all to see. Inside the Storehouse is a mammoth collection, made up of 250,000 objects (from Mughal architecture, to vintage Vivienne Westwood jackets) and 350,000 books which span 1,000 different archives. You also get a peak behind the curtain, with windows into white rooms where conservationists and curators are hard at work (I'm not sure how the staff feel about their office being turned into a human fish tank, but for visitors it's a real thrill). To house all these objects, which were previously kept tucked away in Blythe House in West Kensington, the V&A needed a vast building. Designed by world-renowned architects Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, its 16,000 square metres (bigger than more than 30 basketball courts) has taken over the former London 2012 Olympics Media and Broadcast Centre, with a purpose built space that spans four floors and took 10 years to come to fruition. What is the V&A East Storehouse like inside? On entering I'm greeted by a minimal, modern foyer, with primary-coloured arm chairs, pale wood furniture and grey floors. It seems like a comfortable place to spend a few hours with a coffee, or tapping away on a laptop – there's an inviting coffee shop helmed by the team behind local bakery e5 Bakehouse, and plenty of seating. But onto the main event. When I emerged into the collections hall, I let out an audible gasp. Climb up the staircase in the foyer and you will arrive in an enormous square room. In the centre is a glass floor with windows looking onto the levels below; this centre point is encircled by a treasure trove of different cultural artefacts. Interiors wise, the whole thing is fairly stripped back. Rows and rows of steel shelves are filled with objects, some as old as five centuries, as far as the eye can see. In some places the items are very loosely grouped together to show a snippet of each of the disciplines housed in the V&A's collection, from performing arts, to furniture, to fashion, to jewellery and more. Bronze statues, ornate vases, intricate costumes, motorbikes – you name it, they have it, and you can see them all on display together. There are no lengthy gallery texts, instead just library-like barcodes and the odd QR code, meaning it's all down to your own interpretation. The randomness is part of the fun. It's a joy to see a floral-painted Glastonbury festival bin on show next to a boned 19th century dress. Some objects are organised into mini exhibitions at the end of each corridor, which the V&A is calling its 'hacked' displays. These change every few months and offer tidbits of information – the most fascinating bits being insights into how museums and archives actually work. It sounds nerdy, but it's genuinely interesting to get a proper behind the scenes look into everything from restoration, to curation, to how the items are stored and how displays are built. Designed to be a self-guided experience, you get to choose your own adventure and get lost among the objects. I wasn't totally left floundering alone though. Friendly gallery assistants are on hand to answer any questions – just look out for the people in orange vests. What are the best things to see in the V&A East Storehouse? Dotted among the eclectic collection are also some of the museum's prized large objects, some of which haven't been on display for decades due to their size. Six of these items have been built into the walls of the museum; this includes a recreation of the Robin Hood estate, a former Poplar council block that opened in 1972 and housed residents up until 2024. The brutalist facade of the estate hangs from the mezzanine, while on the second floor you can take a peak at the building's recreated corridors, with bright orange doors and psychedelic wallpaper. Another stunner is the exquisite 15th century carved and gilded wooden ceiling from the now lost Torrijos Palace in Spain and a recreation of a 1950s kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky that revolutionised cooking for housewives. And don't miss the largest Picasso in the world, standing more than 10 metres high and 11 metres wide. What is 'Order an Object' at the V&A East Storehouse? There is already enough to leave you blown away, but the jewel in the crown of the V&A East Storehouse is its 'Order an Object' service. Here visitors can request any available item from the archive to be brought to them in the special viewing room, where they can peruse at their leisure. Appointments are free and can be booked online at your own convenience; objects can be viewed for research purposes, or just for the hell of it, and you can order multiple artefacts. Visitors will have their pick of more than half a million creative works, spanning fashion, furniture, photography, ceramics, musical instruments, the list goes on. Their most popular item, I'm told, is the hot pink 1954 silk taffeta evening dress by Cristóbal Balenciaga. I see its brilliantly fuchsia swathes of fabric laid out on the table and am overcome by an urge to try it on (I don't, obviously). Wandering around this living, breathing museum feels like looking into the brain of a mad history professor. Masterpieces and gems of information are everywhere, and it's all jumbled up in a fun and exciting way. My favourite thing about the V&A East Storehouse is that it's a working museum in the truest sense, but it's not pretentious, it simply asks visitors to bask in all the wonders they have on offer. I can't wait to go back and get lost in there for hours.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Over 3,000 pounds of apples donated to Albuquerque food pantry
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Albertson's Market and Market Street Grocers donated 3,840 pounds of apples to local foodbank Storehouse New Mexico Thursday morning. Albuquerque students plant fruit, shade trees around campus The donation is part of the United Family Supermarket's ongoing commitment to the national 'Take a Bite Out of Hunger' initiative. Representatives with Storehouse says donations like these are crucial for families in need. 'Fresh produce is very important at a food pantry. A lot of people assume we just give out canned foods and pastas an things that are shelf stable, but families really need nutritious food that is fresh also,' Jill Beets with New Mexico Storehouse said. Over the past 15 years, United Family has donated 650,000 pounds of apples to food banks across the U.S. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Toby Jones's next campaign? Misinformation, and a huge immersive theatre show
Hidden from view inside a south London warehouse, a new underground movement will be fighting the international blight of misinformation this summer. The huge immersive event – half theatrical show, half social campaign – is to involve some of Britain's leading acting talent, including Toby Jones and Meera Syal, and has been put together by a theatre company led by a woman who learned about misinformation the hard way, at the Georgian television station Imedi. Liana Patarkatsishvili, the founder of Sage & Jester productions, still recalls the moment when the independent newsroom was taken over on the orders of the government of Mikheil Saakashvili. Her experiences have influenced her work on the new show, which is due to take place over 9,000 sq metres in an empty building in Deptford. 'I still remember those days clearly,' she told the Observer. 'Before the 2007 crackdown in Georgia, independent media faced significant challenges and mounting pressure.' The debut show, called Storehouse, is due to run from 4 June until 20 September. The story will take place in a fictional storage facility, where humanity's history has been archived since 1983, the dawn of the internet. In this arena, a 'battle between truth and order' will be waged, 'as the powerful manipulate the truth to their own ends and critical thinking is the only effective weapon'. Syal, who will voice Dolly K Guha, one of the imagined radical founders of the movement, said: 'I'm thrilled to be part of Storehouse. It is an ambitious immersive production that tackles a critical issue.' The three other founders are played by Jones, whose performances as postmaster Alan Bates in the ITV drama about the Post Office scandal won widespread acclaim, the renowned actor Kathryn Hunter, recently seen in Netflix's Black Doves and in the film Poor Things, and by rising star Billy Howle from the film On Chesil Beach. They will guide visitors through the warehouse and through a cast of live actors. Sign up to The Guide Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday after newsletter promotion Patarkatsishvili is keen to show that misinformation is not just the spreading of deliberate falsehoods. 'It's also about creating uncertainty and eroding trust,' she said. 'This tactic has been used globally, from casting doubt in the media to flooding the public with conflicting narratives. In today's attention economy, news has been commodified, becoming a product that needs to be 'sold'. It becomes paramount to be able to discern 'sellable information' and false narratives from facts and being properly factually informed.' The show will run in tandem with a series of public debates, or critical conversations, that are being held through the summer on the other side of London at the Pleasance theatre. The sessions, staged in collaboration with Intelligence Squared, will be compered by the journalist Sophia Smith Galer. The discussions are intended to help inform or 'inoculate' the audience against misinformation by showing them how it can work. 'We want to empower individuals by better understanding the powers at play. A key point for us is to give people a sense of agency, as this topic can make us feel apathetic and disempowered, which ultimately feeds the problem,' said Patarkatsishvili, whose late father, known as Badri, founded the Imedi radio station and television station in Georgia. Debate, she argues, might be a more conventional way to develop critical thinking skills, but theatre can be more effective. 'In its own way, this is what Storehouse aims to do; immerse audiences in a world where they decide what's true,' she said. 'The art of storytelling creates empathy and understanding in ways that facts alone cannot. When audiences step inside, they're not just watching a story – they're living it. They're forced to grapple with difficult questions about truth, power, and their own complicity in shaping narratives. Entertainment has always been a powerful tool because it humanises abstract issues and makes them personal.' Patarkatsishvili's hope is that Storehouse will be 'more than a show – it's a call to action'. 'It asks audiences to reflect on their role in today's information ecosystem, and challenges them to take responsibility for the stories they believe and share.'
